


Fallin’ Fallin’ Fallin’

by foreverwonder



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Crushes, F/M, Self-Indulgent, Unrequited Crush, rarepairs are the death of me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 10:11:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5824576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverwonder/pseuds/foreverwonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey, Tsukki?”</p>
<p>Yamaguchi was quiet for a moment, and the sounds of their shoes hitting the pavement were the only thing that surrounded them. </p>
<p>“Yachi-san,” he started and Kei glanced at him again. “She’s… cute, don’t you think?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In all retrospect, Yamaguchi’s question didn’t bear any significance, but he didn’t understand why he thought about it every time he spotted Yachi around the school and during practice for the next couple of weeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fallin’ Fallin’ Fallin’

**Author's Note:**

> I love Yachi. I love Yamayachi actually. But I also love Tsukishima.
> 
> Hence this rarepair word vomit.
> 
> Enjoy

“Hey, Tsukki?”

Kei glanced at Yamaguchi from the corner of his eyes. The freckled teen was not looking at him, instead his eyes were fixed at the road in front, where they were walking back from club practice. Even in the dim lighting, Kei noticed that Yamaguchi wasn’t really seeing the road. He pulled his headphones down from his ears to hang around his neck. He didn’t say anything, but it was a clear indication to Yamaguchi to continue.

Yamaguchi was quiet for a moment, and the sounds of their shoes hitting the pavement were the only thing that surrounded them.

“Yachi-san,” he started and Kei glanced at him again. “She’s… cute, don’t you think?”

It was a question Kei didn’t honestly expect. But remembering his friend’s slack-jawed expression when Yachi was first introduced to the team, he supposed it _was_ to be expected. But he still turned his head fully to face the freckled teen, an eyebrow raised, although they never stopped walking. Yamaguchi, to his credit, didn’t get flustered straight away, his thoughts far judging from the unfocused look in his eyes.

Ah, Kei thought. He had seen the look on his friend’s face before once in middle school.

But he decided to humour him as he thought back on the first-year manager. She was small, way too small for a high schooler, easily flustered and excitable all the same. Put her together with the simpleton duo, and Kei would avoid her like a plague. But he supposed that was what Yamaguchi liked about her.

“I’ve never really thought about it,” he told his friend honestly, because he really never. Yamaguchi hummed but never pressed on, and silence surrounded them on the rest of the way back.

 

 

 

In all retrospect, Yamaguchi’s question didn’t bear any significance, but he didn’t understand why he thought about it every time he spotted Yachi around the school and during practice for the next couple of weeks.

His eyes would involuntarily be drawn for her small form, either by Shimizu-senpai’s side or passing water bottles to the team. He would notice the excited gleam in her eyes whenever Hinata’s and Kageyama’s quick strike went through and she would smile sweetly at whatever it was Sugawara-san would say. His interactions with her remained the same though – a simple “Tsukishima-kun” whenever she presented him his bottle and his soft “thanks” when he received it. Their fingers never brushed in these instances, unlike in situations on shoujo mangas where the bottle would be dropped and the two would become flustered at the small point of contact. Kei was a realist.

Still, he caught himself more times than he cared to admit looking at her, either from the court or whenever he passed by her classroom, Yamaguchi by his side.

Ah, Yamaguchi.

Kei wasn’t blind; he could see that his friend was nursing a crush on the manager. From how flustered he was whenever she passed him a towel to how he would call out to her in the hallways whenever they bump into each other, the look of adoration in his friend’s eyes made something coil at the bottom of his stomach.

Was it guilt?

But Kei told himself there was nothing to be guilty about. That he was merely observing the short girl after his conversation with his friend, to see for himself what was it that made Yamaguchi find endearing. He squashed those feelings down and ignored the small whisper in his ear on what a liar he was.

 

 

 

Yachi seemed to pop up around them more often nowadays. Kei always see her at the hallway, chatting with her classmates, at the field during her PE class, at the cafeteria when he forgot to bring his bento to school. She would always turn to greet him with a smile to which he would always nod in return. He had to tell himself that the smile wasn’t just aimed at him – Yamaguchi was there with him whenever they bumped into Yachi.

 

 

 

It was after practice a week before the start of the Spring High preliminaries that Yamaguchi finally told him.

“I think I like Yachi-san,” he said out loud to the silence of the late evening as they walked down the hill from the school after separating from the rest of the team.

Kei didn’t say anything, having left his headphones slung around his neck, but he turned to fully face his friend to find his cheeks painted red, eyes not meeting his. Kei turned back, giving his friend the privacy to deal with his embarrassment before he replied. “I know.”

Yamaguchi sputtered and stayed rooted on the spot, which Kei realised only after he was a meter away from the freckled teen. He looked back to find wide eyes and a red face staring at him, mouth agape. Kei merely shrugged.

“You were pretty obvious,” he remarked and a strangled groan came out from his friend who had buried his face in his hands.

“You think,” he mumbled in his hands but Kei could make out the words. “You think she noticed?”

Kei thought about it. He thought about the fleeting glances he caught her looking in their direction at times, and how their eyes would meet across the hallways. How Yachi would smile brightly at Yamaguchi whenever she handed him his bottle before turning to face him, her smile slightly dimmer and nervousness clouded her vision.

Kei noticed that while their interactions remained the same, but there was like an invisible distance now, a deliberate one. How her fingers only ever held his bottle right at the edge so that there was never a possibility of their fingers touching. How she would turn her head quickly whenever Kei caught her eye.

“Tsukki?”

Yamaguchi’s voice cut through his thoughts like a knife. He felt the familiar coiling in his gut that he had attempted to squash down months ago. Kei turned away from Yamaguchi, his back to him as he mumbled, “I don’t know.”

 

 

 

Yamaguchi confessed to Yachi after their final match with Shiratorizawa.

Kei didn’t know about this until he reached the gym days later to find Tanaka and Nishinoya teasing him about his crush. His friend had avoided eye contact with him when their seniors told him about it and throughout practice. Kei hadn’t confronted him – not that he would, but there was a simmer of _something_ under his skin at the notion that he hadn’t been the first to know about this. Even so… Kei chanced a glance in the general direction of where Yachi was.

She was talking to Shimizu-senpai, but her posture was unnaturally stiff where her back was turned to the court while her neck was straining where her head was turned to the senior manager. He could make out a flash of nervousness from her eyes and the trembling of her bottom lip and something ached in his chest.

What had been her reply?

They weren’t the type to flaunt, both Yachi and Yamaguchi. They could be already dating and no one would know unless the team could pry it out of them. The thought of them dating made Kei clench his fist unknowingly.

“Quit spacing out, Tsukishima!” Hinata’s loud voice rang out, snapping Kei out of his thoughts. He huffed and bit back the snarky remark that was at the tip of his tongue when Yachi’s eyes locked gazes with his. It was a fleeting moment before they both look away, Kei back at the court while Yachi’s attention back at Shimizu-senpai.

It was fleeting, but Kei thought he saw her cheeks reddened.

 

 

 

“I was rejected.”

Kei didn’t have any words of comfort for his friend; he couldn’t think of anything nice to say. Instead, he settled for a soft “I see.” eyes not meeting Yamaguchi’s as they walked back after practice. He hadn’t noticed the look his freckled friend had given him then.

 

 

 

It was after he had reached home and his brother asking him if something good had happened that Kei realised he was _smiling._

 

 

 

Despite his failed confession, Yamaguchi refused to let things get awkward with Yachi. He treated her as per usual, as friends, as teammates, and Yachi slowly relaxed until she was able to smile brightly at him. But his friend had become quiet whenever he and Kei walked home from practice, no longer bringing up topics for conversation. The silence wasn’t awkward though, but Kei could feel his eyes on him more often now. He didn’t call Yamaguchi out for it though; the stare wasn’t the intense, piercing sort Kageyama would usually use to unknowingly intimidate others, it was more critical, as though he was studying Kei. Kei felt that the stare felt similar to Sugawara-san’s whenever he was studying someone from afar.

So he let it slide, brushing it off as something he thought as insignificant to think about.

Yachi, however, seemed to have broken the deliberate invisible distance between them.

She no longer tried to avoid his gaze, instead smiling softly whenever their eyes met when she was at the hallway or when he passed by her classroom. How she had held onto his bottle more securely, how their fingers would brush when he took his bottle from her. How he felt her soft gaze on his back when he was on court. She started speaking to him more as well, starting with “how was your day”s and discussions of their English homework. Yamaguchi would join in occasionally, but most of the time he would excuse himself, saying that he had something to speak to Hinata about. Kei knew that wasn’t true but he didn’t question him.

 

 

 

“Tsukishima-kun!”

Kei looked up at the sound of his name just as the song he was listening to ended, and pulled off his headphones. Yachi came forward, smiling as she wished him a good morning.

“Morning,” he greeted back and Yachi settled to sit on his right at the steps outside the gym. It was a Saturday morning, where there was supposed to be practice at seven in the morning. Kei had gone ahead of Yamaguchi who overslept and upon reaching, realised he was the first to arrive. It was half past seven now and Kei wondered if he had gotten the timing for practice wrong.

“Wasn’t practice supposed to start at 7?” Kei asked Yachi who shook her head slowly.

“They changed the time this morning. You didn’t get the text?”

With that, Kei fished out his phone to find an unread notification. It was sent right after he left home, stating that practice was postponed to eight in the morning. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. That meant Yamaguchi was taking his time to come to school. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Yachi giggling. He turned his head questioningly at her.

“It’s really a rare sight to see you sitting out here alone,” she said somewhat apologetically although he wasn’t offended. He clicked his tongue again and looked away, to the school gates to see if anyone else was arriving. There was no one else in sight and the two of them sat in silence. Kei glanced at Yachi from the corner of his eye to find her looking ahead as well, gaze soft and smile small and something fluttered in his chest. He coughed.

“Why are you here early?” he asked her and she whipped her head to look at him, slightly surprised at the fact that Kei had been the one to initiate the conversation. She smiled at him when he turned to face her again and her shoulders relaxed.

“I was already on the bus to here,” she explained, shrugging. “Anyway, if I were to take the later bus, I’ll definitely be late.”

Kei made a noise of acknowledgement in the back of his throat. “I see,” he said softly, his eyes not leaving hers.

It was a rare sight, he thought, to see Yachi’s face at eye level. He was used to see the top of her head up close and her whole face from afar, but he never was in a situation where he could see her face up close and _there._ He noted her long eyelashes, how her wispy, blonde hair covered her forehead, how her nose was a gentle slope, how her eyes were a shade of caramel under the morning light.

Yachi’s eyes never left his face, and under his scrutiny, her red started colouring her cheeks but her eyes held something unreadable in them. Kei dared not to break the eye contact or say a word lest he ruin the mood that had settled between them. Then, Yachi shifted, her left hand that was on the lap now at the space between them. Kei didn’t look down, and Yachi didn’t look away, her brown eyes now containing a gleam of determination and a hint of hesitance in them. Then, Kei felt the brush of her finger on his right hand beside him.

There was a tingling sensation that shot up his arm but he didn’t shy away. He kept his hand still, their fingers barely touching. Kei saw her cheeks reddened even more but he kept looking at her, his face impassive. Perhaps it was his lack of response that made her have doubts, because she was pulling her hand away, the place where their fingers touched burned Kei’s skin. He didn’t think twice – hadn’t thought about it – when his hand shot out, fingers curling around hers.

Yachi parted her lips in a soft gasp, the blush creeping up to the tip of her ears again. Her widened eyes looked down at their linked hands and up to his face again and Kei could feel the flutter in his chest again. He gave her a small, tentative, smile and it was a moment before her lips stretched to a shy smile of her own.

Ah, Kei thought as he felt the tingle in his skin and the pounding of his heart.

She really was cute.

 


End file.
